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Session3.3
Meat Heat By Aurianya of the 70th Carric, Grammarsh, Aurianya, Chen, Root, Jespora, Journey to the Pyramid. ''' '''Sometime in January 73 Chen steps out into the fresh air of the morning with a sense of excitement at the possibilities to come from his very first adventure in his new home. He realizes he is shuttering, perplexed… “I am not that excited,” He thinks. “Gods it is COLD!” he exclaims. He pulls out his complimentary Hardholme map all Arrivals are gifted on their first day. “Where can I buy a coat… Ah!” he spots Ridge Tailor Company and heads that direction. In the establishment, he sees a towering Dragonborn behind the counter appearing to be measuring bolts of fabric. “Greetings! Welcome to Ridge Tailor Company, I’m the owner Lex! I’m honored you’ve decided to patron my establishment so soon after your arrival. What can I get for you?” Chen, “Oh yes… ah, Hello, Lyx. I am used to much more tropical temperatures and am in need of a coat. Do you have one for purchase?” Lex, taking in Chen’s size, “Yes of course! I have one I think will fit you nicely. Perfect for our cooler climate and can accommodate the versed adventurer.” “Wonderful!”, Chen, reaches for his coin purse. Lex quickly jumps in, “Oh no, no. This is on the house, call it a welcome present.” Chen, uneasy with taking someone’s handy-work without payment reaches for the coat “Thank you…” Lex replies, “My pleasure, I look forward to future business with you.” Giving the Apeling a toothy grin that says he may be coming around to collect on this ‘gift’ sometime down the road. Chen shakes off the exchange and makes his way to the Tipsy Tabaxi to meet the rest of his party. Carric, on the other side of town is briskly walking towards to the temple, his demeanor marred with worry. There he asks one of the knights to keep an eye on Prentiss while he is gone, giving specific instructions on what do to whoever causes her harm. Leaving the temple, he soothes his gait and settles into his usual gliding swagger as he heads to the Tipsy Tabaxi. At the Tipsy Tabaxi, Root, Jespora, Grammarsh, and Aurianya are already sitting at a table when Carric arrives, he toys with the idea of doing his grand entrance but thinks better of it… He just isn’t in the mood. As Carric makes his way to the table, he catches a glimpse of Chen also heading to the table carrying a tankard from the bar. There are excited tones at the table as the more seasoned adventurers advises the greener adventures on what their maiden voyage should be. All excited aside for Carric, who is not his usual menga smoking-drinking-rowdy-self. When asked what’s wrong, Carric states, ‘I’ve been going through a rough time, stuff is going on with Prentiss… I don’t want to talk about it right now… Later, around the camp fire.’ The group decides on the ‘Scary Tentacle Monster Pyramid’ as their destination and head on their way, decided that Anya is going to carry the bag of holding. Before leaving town, Root and Anya want to make a detour to the borough of Matmar to see what they could get with their newly acquired Rare Hyla Coins from Ralraw. Root turns in 3 coins and pulls from the bag, a Wand a Pointing… A wand that shines a light in the direction it is pointed. Root tests it around the dark room they stand in. Anya is very interested in following the path of the small red dot as Root flashes the wand around, resisting the urge to pounce on it every time it rests on a single spot for too long. “Huh…” Root says… “Well, um… I have enough for one more item… Let’s see what else I can get.” Reaching his large gruff hand into the bag, he pulls out a pair of silk flattering undergarments. He lifts it up in front of him perplexed and looks around bashfully at the group standing around him. Ralraw, “Ah, excellent choice! Charms all the ladies (or gentlemen).” Root clears his throat and steps aside to allow Aurianya to take her turn with the bag. Reaching in she pulls out a delicate crystal goblet that sparkles in the candle light of the room. Her eyes glisten as she stares wide eyed at the goblet, “Shiny…” She whispers. Root looks down at his wares and sighs ruefully. From there, they head directly out of town knowing it is just a day’s journey north to their destination. The spot where 3 years prior a bean became a pyramid. The newer adventurers stare in marvel as they pass the large field of Stryders having not seen beasts like this ever in their life. In the distance, hills and plains are seen for miles with large white trees with stocky branches. Root cautions, “We best not get too close to those trees and we must keep quiet. If you look carefully you can see large nests, those are the homes to the Batdusas… one eyes flying creatures that are not friendly at all.” Carric chuckles, “Guys, remember that time I woke up a bunch of them with Thunderclap? Hah, good times!” Grammarsh and Anya exchange a look and sigh, “Oh, yes… a hoot…” By the end of the day, the group makes it to the base of the pyramid where they set up camp. Chen quickly begins making a campfire and starts to brew tea from his kettle. He offers it to everyone and begins to practice his evening katas. Anya takes Chen up on the offer for tea, sniffs it then pours it into the shiny goblet she has had clutched in her hands since the moment she got it that morning. Instantly the tea turns into wine and Anya gleefully giggles, first taking a sip, then gulping it. Delicious! Oh! And she suddenly feels a calm presence of wisdom… as if she were possessed by an owl or something… what a wonderful feeling! She passes the goblet around the campfire and Chen starts cooking dinner after finishing his katas. Around the campfire the senior adventurers regale the freshies with past heroics and near-death experiences. Carric introduces the new folks to Phil and the little guy starts running laps around the fire. Carric smiles for a moment then his face falls as he begins to cry, “I’m having a really rough time, guys…” He begins to tell the party about the day he proposed to Prentiss. The actual reason she ran off stage was because she saw a familiar face in the crowd. The face of a man she never wanted to see again, Loth. The man responsible for Carric’s father-figure Ander’s death and who also controlled Prentiss for years terrorizing her. “I’ve taken her to Viven to keep her hidden while we track him down… He is a scary dude… I just want to marry my love!” The group comforts him as they pass the shiny goblet of wine around. They eventually settle into the nightly watch and what do you know, Wingas show up during every watch group… none were caught. In the morning, they pack up and head into the pyramid; Root and Grammarsh leading the way, followed by Carric and Anya, with Chen and Jespora bringing up the rear. The entrance leads into a large hallway that is about 100 ft long and 20 ft wide. As the group proceeds down the corridor, they hear the sound of moving air. Carric, Anya, Root and Jespora all get hit with darts. The group begin to race down the hallway and those hit with the darts find that they are unable to run as fast as they normally do. A second round of darts are fired hitting both Carric and Anya who both pass out from the darts poisoned tip. At this point the walls begin to close in on each other. Chen looks back seeing Anya fallen to the ground and attempts to carry her. Noticing that Chen isn’t able to move fast enough to clear the closing walls while carrying Anya, Root whisks her up onto his shoulder while reaching down to grab the limp Carric onto his other shoulder. Chen moves ahead of Jespora and Root to make sure the rest of the way is cleared. As Root races against the closing walls with Carric and Anya on either shoulder, Root places his hands on his head performing Laying on of Hands to heal himself of the poison allowing him to run at a normal pace, barely clearing the walls before they closed completely. The group falls into a room just a bit larger than the hallway. There are fantastical statues in the room and the walls are covered with painted images and draconic writing. Jespora and Chen are both able to read draconic and share with the Root what they find. The walls depict a scene of ages ago. It’s the story of a heroic figure, a human who fought dragons and monsters alike. Valofax the immortal, through his sheer force of will was able to gain enough power and ascended to become a demigod. Despite this, he eventually dies with this pyramid as his tome. There is a door to the south, in front of the door, there is a statue of Valofax, with his arms outstretch with what looks to be space for a missing sword and shield. There are hallways leading to the east and west. The room is full of old creepy bones. While waiting for Anya and Carric to arouse, Root takes extra time to examine the painting style on the walls. He finds the style interesting yet hastily painted. He casts Detect Evil and Good saying, “I do sense undead close by.” Eying the dried bones on the ground. Over time, Anya and Carric come to. Carric, looking around the room, “… This… these paintings… That man with the sword… is metal. I’m feeling Inspired… Musically…” Chen having spent his time in meditation, suggests to the group to go into the East passageway. They come into the hallway as it narrows down to the point where it becomes awkward to stand twoxtwo. Chen takes a torch off the wall and carries it with is tail. They soon realize this isn’t a normal hallway, it’s a maze and begin to get confused as where they came from and where they need to go. They stop to get their bearings and change their tactic. Chen uses his keen skills of survival to help navigate the hallways until suddenly a booming voice that sounds like it is chewing while speaking calls, “You are never going to figure your way out of here, AH HAHAHA” *chomp chomp chomp* Carric starts to play his guitar to see if the sounds can help us figure out the next way to go and maybe invent a new genre of music altogether. He ends up distracting the group and the voice yell, “HA HAHAHA! YOU FOOLS! That noise isn’t going to help you get through MY MAZE!” *CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP* Grammarsh takes the lead, “Let me see…” Begins to run in a direction, is distracted by the chomping noise and begins to run in circles inciting uproarious laughter from the hidden figure. Root takes the lead next, knowing that our chances to get through the maze are ever narrowing. He begins to share a story of a time his father took him tracking, he begins to pay more attention to his story then the direction we are going and stops dead… “Oh wow! We seem to be near the end!” Anya, taking extra care knowing this may be their last chance to get through the maze before they have to start over… She pays extra attention to every tiling placement as she navigates through the halls leading them to a large minotaur who is wedged in the hall eating out of a large bag. He is surprised and irritated that his maze has been solved. “How did you make it through my maze!?” he said. *chomp chomp* Root says, “We are a talented group of beings, what is your name?” “Valofax.” The group looks at each other confused… Root, “For real??” “Yes, well… no, not THE Valofax, of course. But that is the name I was given at birth.” Carric says snickers, “You stuck bro…” Anya, with a concerned look,” You need help?” Valofax pauses for a moment, perplexed by the kindness of one of his would-be victims, “Yes!” He exclaims. Valofax processed to tell the group he was born and left in the pyramid for the specific purpose to guard this maze. He has been alone ever since. He is very lonely… and bored! Anya, “If you are supposed to be guarding this maze, can you leave?” Valofax ‘Oh, I don’t care. I’m so lonely…’ Anya Consoles Valofax, while is very uncomfortable to him is also oddly satisfying. Anya, “Ya know… I have a great new job opportunity for you, you would be doing what you know… guarding. But it would be a place full of beings and art!” The Minotaur considers this, curious about a world of possibilities he didn’t know was an option for him. Carric, “Sorry I was a dick to you earlier… I’ve been under a lot of stress…” and tells Valofax about the Prentiss story. The group helps Valofax dislodge himself from the pathway while Chen gratefully helps himself to the bag of food that seems to never run out. They proceed down the hallway to a sunken room in the shape of a cross. There are 4 pentagrams, one in each direction of the room, and the stone shield suspended in the air in the middle of the room by some magical means. Chen identifies the pentagrams as Wiccan in origin for the purpose of summoning. Jespora asks Valofax, “Do you know what these summoned?” “Me, no… I’ve never been beyond my maze, HAH!” scoffs Valofax. Chen shares that he thinks if we move the shield the circles will summon things, “So we may want to be careful.” Root thinks out loud, “Well, we can either take the shield and risk it or leave…?” Chen replies,” I didn’t come to leave before doing the adventuring part!” Each member carefully considers their placement in the room, Chen goes to the north pentagram and climbs up the wall preparing for whatever monster is to come from the portal. Jespora goes to the east portal, Anya to the south (secretly jealous of Chen’s climbing abilities…) and Grammarsh to the west. Carric stays a safe distance just outside of the room. Valofax, unsure of what to do now that he is out of his maze, “Where do you want me?” Carric, “Right where you are is good.” Which just so happens to be in the doorway blocking Carric further from the room. Root cautiously approaches the shield, looking around at the rest of the group to make sure they are ready. Root takes the stone shield in his hands and before Root has a chance to react, a glass cylinder flies down around him from the ceiling and begins to fill with water… fast. Within seconds it is already rising to Root’s knees. The Summoning circles light up and 3 flaming skeletons form within each circle. Carric, now straddling Valofax’s shoulders, busts up laughing at the scene. Chen instantly jump-attacks one of the skeletons, knocking into it with a kick-punch-punch. Chen calls out in pain as his fists and feet are burned with each contact. Carric, from atop the Minotaur pulls out his guitar, strumming his guitar to the hoping to inspire a new genre of music casting shatter on cylinder. The guitar sequence sounds awkward, but the effect workds just the same. Root, seeing what Carric is doing, can be seen (not heard) yelling, “NO, Stop! I can teleport!!!” The glass shatters around and into Root, leaving him with cuts all over his body. The water, continuing to furiously pour from the ceiling, now spills out into the rest of the room, the water is now just below ankle height. Steam is rising from the flaming skeletons in surrounding them. Carric, indignant of Root’s protest, “I got you out of there, Dude! Because me, you are out of there, you should be grateful!” Grammarsh raises his Thunderous Axe and swiftly hits all three of his skeletons with a single strike. Anya casts Fog Cloud on the south skeletons leaving them confused and lost, freeing her to assist whoever seems to need it the most. Jespora casts Thunder Wave, hitting all 3 of the east skeletons knocking one into the wall. The skeletons now have their chance to attack, only one of the three on Chen manage to hit him, but hits him much harder than he was expecting knocking the wind out of him. Two of the skeletons on Jespora hit her while the one on the ground works to get back up again. One of the three on Root hits him, and luckily, Grammarsh finishes this round unscathed. Valofax lets out of terrifying rawr and charges into the fog cloud with Carric still on his shoulders. Carric manages to jump down right before Valofax enters the cloud. Smashing and crashing is heard with the occasional bone chunk thrown out of the cloud, Valofax chuckling as he moves. Chen, expends a ki to unleash a fury of blows on all three of the skeletons facing him knocking all of them to the floor. With the water in the room almost to knee-height, the fallen skeletons’ flames are completely extinguished. Carric, using his bardic power, turns into the form of a flaming skeleton and covers himself with his invisible cloak. Grammarsh swings his axe completely smashing two if his skeletons leaving the final one all sizzling all alone. Root assists Jespora and cues up thunderous smite lifting his warhammer as lightning pulses into one of the skeletons throwing it back into the wall and shattering it. He finishes his attack with an extra swing into the next one. Anya dashes across the room to help Chen with her short sword and dagger both drawn. She attacks the closest one to her on the floor striking it with both weapons. Jespora lifts her hammer over her head preparing to attack, it slips out of her hands hitting the wall behind her as she letts out a yell of frustration. In the next wave of skeletal attacks, Anya and Jespora are both hit, leaving Jespora knocked out face down in the water. Valofax can be heard laughing as he smashes in the cloud. Chen does a spinning double kick to the same skeleton Anya attacked. An invisible Carric splashes across to Jespora casting cure light wounds on her to stabilize her. Jespora who is now conscious and coughing, thrashes under water while Carric stands above her calling to her, “Hey… at least you’re alive! Because of ME, you are alive!” Grammarsh, having killed all the skeletons at his pentagram, runs across the room to help Root and Jespora with their remaining skeletons. He manages to hit one but this same one immediately hits him back. With Grammarsh’s remaining attack, he smashes into the weaker skeleton dismantling it. Root uses Turn the Faithless on the remaining skeletons momentarily confusing them, causing them to disengage from fighting and begin to flee. Anya and Chen use this opportunity to attack the ones remaining next to them dispatching both of them. Chen immediately does a flip jump over to the two left by Jespora smashing down on them crushing them into the earth. Valofax stumbles out of the fog cloud smiling bigger than he ever remembers smiling. “That was fun!” Carric pull out his three-pronged tentacle rod striking down the final skeleton with the moxie only a Rockstar can pull off, “Deadso…” Leaving the haphazard party stunned in silence. Carric whips off the inability cloak revealing himself as a flaming skeleton, “Hey guys, look at me!!” The party is bemused with the gesture as Carric releases the illusion. They retreat to higher ground and take a small rest. Chen heads directly to Valofax’s food bag pointing to it, “Can I have some?” Valofax grunted ‘Yes’ as the minotaur himself digs his hand into the bag. Chen moves on to make his tea leaving it out to share with everyone as he settles in to meditate. Anya pour tea her shiny goblet offering the tea-turned-wine to everyone in the room. Carric, now relaxing against the stone wall lazily strumming on his guitar, reflecting on how *Metal* this whole pyramid has turned out to be, trying to figure out a sound to represent the occasion. Root heals Jespora, as she was the most badly injured by their foes. Afterward, Root pulls out his pointing stick flashing it around the room. Anya, uncontrollably interested in the red dot flashing around begins to compulsively chase it around the room, aggravated that she never could quite catch it… After the party feels fully rested, about an hour or two later, the minotaur leads them back through his labyrinth. As they reached the first part of the maze, he thinks out loud, “I haven’t been to this part in forever… it looks pretty nice.” Standing on with pride. Back into the main room, Root places the shield into its slot. The room begins to shutter as the door behind the statue cracks open. With that the group turns to the next hallway. Anya stops right before entering the doorway thinking to herself… I should probably start checking for traps as she reflects back to the poisoned darts at the beginning of the pyramid… “Ugh, I hate checking for traps” she thinks to herself, “It is the most boring part of being a rogue…”. She is unable to find any because it’s so boring. The group turns the corner to a long hallway with seven sets of tiles in front of them. The tiles are in clusters of 4 and are all different colors with a different set of runes on each tile. There is Draconic writing on the walls that Chen and Jespora share with the group reading ‘Onward and Upward’. Root takes out the immoveable rod and steps on the first tile prepared to activate the rod in case he finds that the floor goes out from underneath him; nothing happens. Jespora and Chen take a closer look at runes on each tile. There are four runes to a tile and no two runes are the same; neither one of them are able to discern a meaningful pattern. Chen moves to the next set of tiles to discover seven sets of tiles ahead of him down the hallway, exclaiming, “The hall seems to keep going!” Next, Chen, Root, Anya, and Grammarsh steps and stands on a tile at the first set; nothing happens. Carric says, “Maybe we need to get high!” and casts Levitate on Root. Root, terrified of heights yells, “Carric! I didn’t say you could cast this on me! I may be a goliath, but I do NOT like being high!” Carric dispels Levitate dropping Root. Then pulls out his menga saying, “What about this kind of high… anyone?” Ignoring his last suggestion, the group proceeds forward down the hallway, with each set of tiles they move to, another seven sets appear ahead of them. Arriving at seventh set, the hallway abruptly ends and makes a sharp turn to the left revealing another long straight hallway. Valofax blurts out, “This is SUPER boring! It’s just straight!! Who makes a straight hall???” Somewhere, far away, the pyramid designer is regretting the endless hallway design… He was expecting it to through unsuspecting adventurers’ off way longer than it did in reality… The group finds another room, smaller than the ones they have seen so far. There is a giant hole that seems to be about 40 feet wide towards the back of the room with the stone sword levitating over the hole. The tiling in the room is mostly collapsed as though traps have been triggered over the years. Anya merrily exclaims, “Well it looks like I don’t have to check for traps!” As she bounds up to the edge of the hole. The group follows, Root examines the hole to find that not only did it seem to go down further than they could see, but it also ascends up into ceiling as though a spell attempting to obtain the sword failed horribly. The party spends some time formulating a plan for how best to retrieve the sword. They decide on having Anya use mage hands and have the party all stand a safe distance back in case the rest of the floor falls out around the hole. Anya gets as far away as she possibly can to use the spell and reaches out her hand. She is able to remove it and as she does a large mechanical looking bat made of bones descends from the ceiling trailing after the sword. The bat is about as large as the hole. The group turns and dash towards the opening of the room which is considerably smaller than the bat. As they cross the threshold the bat smashes into the wall frame and breaks into thousands of pieces. Grammarsh comments, “This is Bat engineering… Get it?? Like ‘bad’ but BAT!” laughs awkwardly. They make their way back to the main room. Anya puts the stone sword in its rightful spot on the statue. The door behind the statue opens completely. Before entering the next room, Root performs a spell to increase the party’s constitution. Within the next room, the walls paint a darker portait of the original Valofax. After his death things start to go bad for him. He was taken over by demons who didn’t just force him to do bad things, he became the bad thing. The once heroic Valofax is now the stuff of nightmares. Eventually this demon was slain, with this being his final resting place. On the other side of this chamber is another door with a large-horned female demon standing seductively guarding it… and she is hot! Like, not flames hot, hot-hot… like ‘howl at the moon’ hot. The adventurers approach her hoping that being she a demon doesn’t necessarily mean a fight is about to start. Mostly, they all want to hook up with her. Root approaches the Demon, “Hello, we are sorry to bother you, we are adventurers from Hardholme here to discover the secrets of this pyramid… who are you? Can you tell us what is behind that door?” The captivating demon replies, “I am Valofax, I have been here all my life to guard this door… It is a secret. I’ll never tell.” Carric chimes in, “I’ve been going through a really rough time…” tells her the Prentiss story, “It would really make my day if you tell me what is behind that door.” Valofax the Demon is moved by Carric’s story and releases her serious demeanor, “Honestly, I hate it here… It’s SOOO boring! But, I’m sorry, I don’t remember what is in this room… It’s been far too long.” Chen offers, “Ya know, you are welcome to join us and relieve yourself of your guardian duties… so we can enter this room.” Anya, seeing the opportunity, “Do you like to dance? Because if you do, I have a sweet gig for you back in Hardholme where we are from!” Valofax the Demon replies, “I love to dance!” And begins to show Anya her moves. Anya joyously joins her excited by the prospect of such a lovely creative partner. Grammarsh, enthralled and wanting to be as close to the demon as possible joins in the dance party while Carric, Chen and Jespora sit back and enjoy the show. Root takes this time to take a deeper look at the paintings during the dance party, hoping to glean insight into how it came to be that the Heroic Valofax fell so far. Eventually the dancing members realize themselves and Valofax the Demon begins to work at the door to get it open. You see her turning nobs and dials that weren’t visible one first glancing at the door. She enters a code. “No, no… that isn’t it.” She tries another, again it does not work. After a few minutes of working at the door she finally gets it open. The party plus Valofax the Demon starts through the door when they realize Valofax the Minotaur is grumbling to himself with his arms crossed over his chest. Anya calls back to him, “You coming?” Valofax the Minotaur stammers, “How come her name is Valofax too? I thought I was the only one??? Aside from, ya know, that dude.” He motions absently to the paintings on the walls. Anya moves to Valofax, “Back in Hardholme, you will have a world of possibilities to change your name to, you can be whatever you want! You can choose your name! But first we have to make it out of here, will you come with us?” The minotaur reluctantly joins the party pointedly avoiding Valofax the Demon. The group enters a long and large room, the largest they’ve had in the pyramid so far. There are stairs stepping down into the room with three pillars on either side. Down the center at the back of the room is a sarcophagus with the Real Valofax standing in front of it. “The tenacity of my being brings me back from the dead and now I’m going to kill you.” Carric steps forward, “Dude, I’ve had a really rough time lately…” Begins to tell the Real Valofax the Prentiss story. The sound of reanimated dead bodies from the first room of the pyramid echoes from the walls ,Carric moves back to the rest of the party. “I guess that isn’t going to work this time…” Valofax the Demon turns to the door and begins work at shutting it. *Cue battle music* Chen runs up the left side of the room on the other side of the pillars to be adjacent to the Real Valofax and holds his position. Carric pulls out his guitar and begins to play the most metal riff he has ever played. A sphere of thorns form around the Real Valofax. He Screams in on thorny rage, “MY TENACITY KNOWS NO BOUNDS! I hold totally control of my whole being!” Within the center of thorns, the group sees Valofax’s skeleton separate from his body and begin to struggle through the thorns exiting to the backside of the thorns. The flesh separates tearing through the thorns closest to Chen, The shadow moves through the thorns opposite of Chen into Grammarsh’s shadow, and his muscular form in front of the thorns. All appearing unaffected by the obvious damage each form took leaving Carric’s creation. The group, acting in concert with each other focuses on taking down the flesh first. Root casts moonbeam, sizzling the flesh omitting a terrible stench. Anya pulls out her crossbow, thanking Aurelae for her specialized training, as she prepares a magic bolt to sneak attack the singeing flesh. And Jespora rounding their teamed attack with Sacred flame leaving the Flesh in flames yet still very much corporeal and moving. Chen, remembering what happened last time he tried to punch a flaming being, runs off the pillar catapulting to the other side of the room kicking the shadow off of Grammarsh’s and attacking it. This frees Grammarsh to turn and smack his axe hard into Valofax’s skeleton. Valofax’s flesh combines with his muscular and activates a bead of force into Jespora, Root Carric and Anya knocking them all out of the spheres, luckily they all stay on their own two feet. The skeleton attacks Grammarsh missing one hit but making it up in a solid punch hitting him harder than Grammarsh was prepared for. The fleshy muscular charges toward Carric readying a punch, as the punch lands on Carric the flesh begins to cling to him while still attached to the muscu… the meat, attempting to grapple Carric to the ground. Carric, still standing, shrieks in disgust as the flesh continues to cling to him. Root and Anya wait close to the door as the other Valofax’s struggle to shut it all while the screeching and gnashing of the undead skeletons drive ever closer to the room. Jespora casts inflict wounds fleshy meat in an attempt to dislodge it from Carric, boiling and turning the moving pieces rancid as it stands. Root, back at the door attempts to turn undead on the approaching skeleton warriors with no avail. Anya moves to attack the fleshy meat stabbing it right into it’s back. Carric stabs the flesh-meat with his rapier, infusing it with psychic blade. On the other side of the room, Chen uses the torch, still in his tail, as a weapon against the darkest shadow. Grammarsh slices the skeleton with his thunderous axe. The shadow attacks Chen back, hitting him way harder than any shadow should. About as hard as the skeleton hits Grammarsh next to him. The fleshy meat takes his turn at Carric, attempting to knock him back. The flesh begins to separate from the meat landing in a squish behind Anya, and happily Carric still stands. Root politely asks the other Valofax’s to step aside from the door. Root activates one of the fire opals from his Helm of Brilliance. It starts to gleam and casts fireball into the doorway where the skeletons have now entered. Eliminating well over 20 of them. Anya turns to the flesh slicing it in her sneaky way. It is looking more like a pool of flesh but is still very much alive. Jespora lifts her hammer on the Flesh, crashing it down missing it while cursing, “Gods, this stupid HAMMER!” Chen, seeing that Grammarsh is looking a little worse for ware, turns to the skeleton on him with his torch in tail, spins a ki for flurry of blows. He pushed the skeleton to the ground getting a few extra punches with his might. Grammarsh taking this opportunity to venge the damage taken from the Skeleton, getting a good slice in with his axe. Carric, with his rapier, slices and dices the remaining flesh into a fine pulping lifeless heap. The skeleton, back on his feet, attaches to his shadow and hits Chen who is hanging on by a thread. The meat turns on Anya hitting her to her knees as skeleton warriors pour into the room. Root gets up into the Shadow-Skeleton-Fax, activating thunderous smite as he smashes into him with his hammer. Knocking it back ten feet expelling the shadow from the skeleton as it smashes to bits. Anya sneak attacks the meat while Jespora beats the meat with her Sacred Flame. Chen runs up the sarcophagus and becomes death from above with his flurry of blows plowing into the shadow allowing Grammarsh to smash hard into the shadow, it still stands! The meat, only having Anya in his sights, plows into her knocking her cold as he pounds into her from above. Somehow stumbles over his feet and is stunned on top of the passed-out Anya. The shadow, distracted by his meats mistake, gives Gram and Chen the chance to strike, eliminating the fucking shadow. Just leaving the meat. Root gears up to heats up the meat while it is tripped on its feet not realizing Anya is trapped underneath, activating Searing Smite. The now burning meat over Anya’s lifeless body below, begins to burn starting on her head immediately taking her ear in the flames. Jespora, seeing the scene, casts Spare the Dying to stabilize Anya. Chen runs over grabbing the burning meat off of Anya and flings it into the nearest pillar. The burning member flies through the pillar and large stones crumbles onto the lifeless meat. Root, stands in disbelief over his burnt friend, asking himself, “What have I done?” On the forgotten side of the pyramid, the intricate labyrinth is filling with water as the group begins to gather themselves to leave.